Summary: Bill Gates’ latest lobbying in the United States, Nigeria and new ventures in Argentina too; this post covers many strands of operation where PR hides very simple facts (see the videos above for background)

SOME OF the conflicting interests in the Gates Foundation are amusingly obvious, but it’s not exactly amusing when lives are at stake. To give one recent example, Gates invests in tobacco and in tobacco prevention at the same time [1, 2]. Perhaps both sides can be profitable, but that’s just speculation.

“Gates has been investing in BP for several years and he invests in other large oil companies, so it’s not exactly an accident.”To give another more concrete and new example (new in the sense that it makes headlines right now), Bill Gates invests in BP [1, 2] while also investing in “green” energy. Which is it then? Can one invest in both sides? Like financiers who fund both sides in a war? Just because one invests in two conflicting sides does not make it any less profitable. The two sides do not necessarily cancel each other from an outsider’s point of view. In fact, it can become twice as valuable.

United States

We found it rather comical that Bill Gates himself was warning about oil spills. That’s the same guy who is investing in BP. He relies on the fact that many people do not know this. Gates has been investing in BP for several years and he invests in other large oil companies, so it’s not exactly an accident. Now, watch the latest words that are coming out of the mouth of this BP investor:

Gates, venture capitalist Doerr issue warning about America’s future

The ever expanding BP oil spill, in a sense, provides Bill Gates the perfect backdrop for selling Congress and the White House on a proposal to increase annual U.S. spending on clean energy research and development from $5 billion to $16 billion.

The report above — a news report from IDG — forgets or neglects to mention he’s a BP investor (still). We have looked around some more, surveying some articles from the past week. All other articles about BP and Gates neglect to mention their relationship, e.g. [1, 2, 3, 4].

Here is the article from AP, titled “US must invest in clean energy research: Bill Gates”

So what is he trying to say? That his government should invest in “clean energy research” (which he and his friend Nathan Myhrvold have a stake in because of patents they acquired) while he and his foundation continue to invest in “dirty energy” like BP?

If someone can find an article that points out the BP investment (and therefore Gates’ hypocrisy), please do let us know. We try to commend authors who properly investigate and have the guts to challenge the rich people’s foundations. It’s not just the modus operandi of Gates.

Here is Bill on TV, poised to talk about “clean energy”. Yes, Mr. BP Gates (also an Exxon Mobil investor) must be the perfect man to talk about “clean energy”, right? He’s rich, so he knows everything.

There are more TV appearances about this. The Gates Foundation is good at getting those spots. It is a well-greased PR machine, putting him on TV and instructing him on what to say and how to behave (as Microsoft admittedly did too) [1, 2].

“We find it rather ironic that Gates currently gives instructions to the government; his past experience in the government is being grilled in a chair for abuses he committed.”According to other reports, Gates is traveling around the world lobbying. We’ll start with the United States. Gates was lobbying the White House earlier this month. He is making many visits to the White House [1, 2, 3] as though he was actually elected in some way to run the country. What did he go to the White House for? Not to donate but to lobby the government to spend — i.e. pay on behalf of taxpayers — for something which Gates is trying to sell [1, 2]. We find it rather ironic that Gates currently gives instructions to the government; his past experience in the government is being grilled in a chair for abuses he committed. Years later they swap chairs as he rides a high horse.

“Gates has gone lobbying in Nigeria where he invests in harmful oil operations that cause polio and kill/maim many Nigerian children…”Here you can see Bill Gates lobbying the Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan (who tells people to stop dropping his name). What have they got in common? Well, news reports say that it’s about polio [1, 2], but once again, rather than speak about how Gates’ investments cause polio (like his BP investments help destroy the environment), those two discuss the very opposite, pretending that Gates just cures polio. The “Nigerian leader lauds Bill Gates on polio,” according to local reports. Is that the same Bill Gates who helps cause polio with his investments in Nigerian oil that leaks into rivers and pollutes the air because it’s much cheaper to treat it this way and the Nigerian population is unable to properly sue companies like Shell? My Nigerian friends here in the UK have told me about this. It is an issue that a minority is aware of and those who campaign against this injustice are sometimes hired by the very same companies which they criticise (because it gags the critics, who receive money for their loyalty or silence). That’s just corruption.

Despite the issues raised here, Gates’ PR people seem to be pushing dishonest stuff (maybe ghostwritten because it’s in English) into local newspapers. They are sometimes advertising Microsoft in the process (as though polio and Microsoft are connected). Just watch what Microsoft does to Nigerian schools [1, 2].

Global polio fight to get needed funds -Bill Gate

[...]

The World Health Organization has suggested a budget of $2.6 billion for its polio eradication efforts in 2010-2012, but says it faces a shortfall of about half of funds for that period.

For those who do not know, the UN and WHO (people who hang out even in Gates’ private mansion) are publicly criticised for their ties with Gates’ foundation. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moo is particularly close to Gates and this new article reminds us of that (we have many prior examples and stories).

Behind the scenes at Women Deliver, whose speaking list included UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation, Margaret Chan of the World Health Organization, politicians, policy makers, celebrities and others from around the world, people said they were perplexed by Canada’s policy on funding for maternal health.

Ban Ki-Moon is working alongside his friends from the Gates family and their agenda becomes one [1, 2]. This is widely criticised on occasions and the interests at play are seen as controversial.

European criticism of the World Health Organization’s handling of the H1N1 pandemic intensified Friday with the release of two reports that accused the agency of exaggerating the threat posed by the virus and failing to disclose possible influence by the pharmaceutical industry on its recommendations for how countries should respond.

That’s why we named both the UN and the WHO.

Here is a new video which is only days old. From the description: “How do foundations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation distort the public health agenda? Is there a nexus between big pharmaceutical companies, health foundations and NGO’s? What is state’s responsibility?

“Newsclick talks to Prof. Shree Mulay to get answers for all these questions.”

This video deserves a watch from those who want to understand why they make allegations that the foundations “distort” the health agenda and that “they tend to focus on [too] few things”.

Going back to Nigeria, Gates did find time for some shameless PR like this:

Gates signs soccer ball in Nigeria

Bill Gates, cochair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, added his support to the Kick Polio Out of Africa campaign this week, signing a soccer ball that is making its way through the continent before the 2010 World Cup.

This type of gesture is just so reminiscent of old-age charlatans who traveled the world as imperialists and gave gifts to buy the locals’ consent/trust. There are other examples of PR in Nigeria, but we won’t descend into that because this post is already too long. The gist of this story and the message to take away is that despite reports like this one (AFP), Gates is also investing in companies that cause polio. The mainstream press does not mention this because it stays in line with the rest (which is influenced by heavy PR). Here is a criticism of Gates’ lobbying (visit) in Nigeria:

Bill gets it right here when he says it is both good work and good luck leading to continued control. In the following story the author appears to have mixed up Bill’s work and the work of the Gates Foundation. Does the Foundation encourage this confusion?

In order to keep false allegations and straw man arguments out, we will separately post some other ideas which are brought up in light of “family planning” (contraception) funding and Eugenics conspiracy theorists who will probably make a big deal out of the fact that the “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is connected to the Council on Foreign Relations and Melinda Gates is herself a Bilderberger.” To quote in full from this new post:

A quick Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) search revealed that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is connected to the Council on Foreign Relations and Melinda Gates is herself a Bilderberger.

World Bank health efforts failing in Africa: study

The survey funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said the international lender and its partners’ approach “is not achieving intended outcomes,” especially against diseases like tuberculosis.

We have already explained how Gates invests in the suppliers of those drugs which are priced out of reach.

Argentina

Bill Gates is taking this Africa-style programme to Argentina, which is abused a lot by Microsoft these days [1, 2, 3]. According to this last report, “Bill Gates [is going] to Finance Argentine Vaccine Development Program”

An Argentine scientist’s project to develop vaccines taken orally will receive funding from the foundation headed by Bill Gates, the Argentine government said Saturday.

Argentina learned the hard way (several decades ago) that rich people from the north are not exactly interested in the welfare of the Argentinian population. They ought to watch this with great caution. █

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